What Got You Here Won't Take You There

I'm stealing the title for this blog from another guy who pastors a huge church in Charlotte, Steven Furtick at Elevation Church (www.elevationchurch.org). They are reaching people left and right, its pretty amazing to see all that God has done and is continuing to do in that church in less than two years now (if my math is right).

God is blessing their church and I pray for them regularly, but for now, I just have to give credit where credit is due as it concerns his blog post. He absolutely hit the nail on the head with this one. I read recently that a tree grows and changes as long as it lives, and the same is true for a church. If we are to grow, we must change. Change is inevitable...change is life.

I know that as the new guy on the block here, the young pastor fresh out of the blocks, I might not need to push too hard yet, but I can't help but get excited about what God could do through us if we allow him. But that means that we have to be willing to change, we can't just continue to do everything the same way we have always done things.

Just take me for instance, I'm fresh out of a seven year stint in Youth Ministry. If I tried to do everything as a pastor the way I did as a youth minister, I'm probably going to struggle to be completely relevant to everyone. Even more, if I try to do everything in my pastorate the same way that people pastored 25 years ago, I will absolutely lose my relevance for the current generation. The same is true of our church.

If we are to grow as a church, we absolutely must make a decision about what is most important. Is it most important to keep up with the status quo, or is it most important to reach the world for Jesus Christ. Or, if you would rather, is doing church the same way we did church 20 years ago or even 2 years ago as important as reaching the kid you sit beside in class or the man you share an office with for Christ? I'm hoping that everyone is getting the point here.

Malvern Hill is 75 years old, but one thing is absolutely certain. The things that got us here as a church are not the same things that will get us to the next level. We must continue to bend and flex and do all that we can to apply the Word of God to the church and to the lives of everyone we encounter. Paul was willing to become all things for all people so that he might save some of them...for him that meant going back on his Jewish roots and upbringing. Paul even started worshipping on Sundays instead of Saturdays (woah, this was huge). Are we as willing as Paul to do whatever it takes to reach the world with the gospel?